Today’s ACIM lesson was written last year on Election Day (Nov. 8th, 2016) not on Halloween. Both days are perfect for today’s Lesson 304Let not my world obscure the sight of Christ. This is a teaching about learning to see past perception to reality. I’m not a huge Halloween fan, probably because I grew up during a time when the real-life monsters decided it was the perfect day to hijack the fun and derail it, so our parents had to inspect our candy for razor blades and LSD injections. We trick-or-treated during the day the year a child molester was loose in the neighborhood. Then there was the year my boss’s daughter got murdered on Halloween. My task is to see past all of that to the love that pulses beneath. My task is to Let not my world obscure the sight of Christ.My task is to remember that only the love is real. “Perception is a mirror, not a fact. And what I look on is my state of mind, reflected outward.” It is important to know that perception is a mirror – that I filter my perception through my beliefs and experience life accordingly. To experience bliss, I must be rooted in the Love of God, not my fears. Today’s lesson, from last year’s writing:

Perception is a Mirror

Most of us delude ourselves into thinking that our perceptions are reality, but today’s A Course in Miracles’ lesson reminds us, “Perception is a mirror, not a fact.” We see the world not as it is, but as we are. Perceptions are not “reality;” they are OUR reality. Wake up! We made up the meaning everything has for us. We see the world through a filter. It is done unto you as you believe. We’ve been through a lot with the political candidates in the last year and a half and never is there anything that makes this so abundantly clear as when it comes to politics. When someone says something negative about the horse we are backing, we see it as propaganda.

In church on Sunday, they made the kids craft a prayer for the country and list the God-qualities of both major candidates. We are teaching love. We are teaching tolerance. We are teaching seeing the God in everyone.

Which somehow made me proud to be part of my spiritual community. No one can see truly through eyes of hatred. The world will never heal via condemnation. I may disagree with you, but I can’t even find the love if I am unwilling to put aside notions of right vs. wrong and find the love that is present.

There is always love present. There is no situation where God is missing (that’s my belief and since it is done unto me as I believe, I feel like I’m choosing good ones). To choose to see through the eyes of love is to choose Christ’s vision.

I can obscure my holy sight, if I intrude my world upon it. Nor can I behold the holy sights Christ looks upon, unless it is His vision that I use. Perception is a mirror, not a fact. And what I look on is my state of mind, reflected outward. I would bless the world by looking on it through the eyes of Christ. And I will look upon the certain signs that all my sins have been forgiven me.

You lead me from the darkness to the light; from sin to holiness. Let me forgive, and thus receive salvation for the world. It is Your gift, my Father, given me to offer to Your holy Son, that he may find again the memory of You, and of Your Son as You created him.

I notice how often fear tries to protrude into my perceptions, particularly on election day when the country is so polarized and fearful that if the candidate they support doesn’t win, we are all in deep doo-doo.

“Perception is a mirror, not a fact.”

This is what I know – in a sense, it doesn’t matter. That’s hard for me to comprehend completely because there is a part of me that thinks it matters very much. I’m seriously afraid of the ramifications if my perception of the “wrong” candidate wins.

But the game is rigged. God is always present. That can’t change just because the “wrong” candidate gets into the White House.

You see, even atrocities like the Holocaust and 9/11 have their upsides. They shift consciousness. They move us towards action. They define what we will and won’t put up with. I’m not advocating the end of the world, but none of us can separate ourselves from God or each other.

Only the love is real.

In my Roots class, the provocative topic was about denying the reality of “matter” (and evil, but since we’ve already established that we understand that evil requires a host, that one is easier for the class to comprehend). You see, Emma Curtis Hopkins understood that the temporary (form/matter) is not reality. Spirit/God is in everything and that is what’s real. The power to change circumstances lies in the ability to see past appearances. In class, the ethical question was posed: if you have one liver and four candidates for it, how do you determine who is the most worthy (especially if God is in everyone)? But it’s a trick question. When you understand that there is no sickness, there is no death, there is no sin, then the question changes from ‘who is worthy’ to ‘how do we heal’?

Jesus healed by knowing the truth. By understanding who people are; who God is.